5000 illegal workers in security

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Title – 5000 illegal workers in security
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 12th November 2007

Much has been made of blunders at the Home Office in the past few years and this time it is the Security Industry Authorities’ turn to become a political tennis ball. All the major parties have been jostling for position and any chance they get, the boot gets put in and the headline writers have a field day.

If the figures being banded about are correct then the industry does have a problem, but not one of its own making. Training organisations are not employers and it is not our role to vet employees, but it is the role of individual employers to do so. The SIA is tightening its identity requirements for persons applying for a license, but ultimately the responsibility to ensure that staff employed are eligible to work in this country and have the right accreditation falls squarely with the employer.

An SIA license does not automatically mean an employee has the right to work in the UK. Normal pre-employment checks still need to be carried out, including eligibility of an employee to work in the UK.

One outcome of this revision is that there may soon be somewhere in the region of 5000 less licensed security staff eligible to work in the UK, this in an industry already suffering some staff shortages following the introduction of the licensing process three years ago.

The SIA introduced licensing for security staff to clean up an industry that suffered a terrible reputation, it has succeeded in parts, but there is a long way to go. It will take more then three years to professionalise an industry riddled with unprofessional and criminal influences going back generations and incidents like this one will not be isolated. The key for those responsible employers working within the industry and running professional and efficient operations is to continue to work with the SIA and authorities to clean up failures when they occur and not just spend time talking about them as our politicians sometimes tend to favour.
At Beyond The Blue we run courses in the National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS), these allow individuals passing the examinations and who have suitable documented identification to apply for a Door Supervisors License. The advantage of this course is that it allows the holder of the license to work in the licensed retail sector (bars, clubs, pubs, hotels etc) as well as more traditional security guarding roles. This is not the case for those obtaining a security guarding license which restricts them from working in the licensed retail sector.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk